Myths about Islam

[Rosa Lichtenstein]

Here is an excellent Chanel Four documentary on the Qu'ran (broken down into ten episodes) which challenges many of the myths usually held about it:

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=fvHPp7SOqAE

[Holden Caulfield]

i watched it as well, and have also read the Qu'ran. (and a short history of islam but Karen Armstrong which was a bit crap)

and as with the Bible and many other books that were written by many different people with their own agenda's the Qu'ran (as the docu states) can give weight to almost any argument.

its all down to interpretation

[Devrim]

I watched the first part. It showed a 'mosque' in Turkey, which was actually a cemevi. You would think that they would get the basic facts right.

Devrim

[Holden Caulfield]

me and family watched a program about religion (cant remember what) and i had a relic which was Jesus painted by Luke apparently, and my sligtly Christian mum grunted and was like "yeah right". to which i retorted yeah thats unplausable, not like believing that an invisibile man lives in the sky and controls everything.

i was a funny moment, i felt the urge to share

[Rosa Lichtenstein]

Trust Devrim to reject something based on one small error.

[jake williams]

The biggest and most important myth about Muslims is that they're homogenous. A complicating factor is that a lot of them seem to think they are, too.

[Devrim]

One gets the idea that if they make basic factual errors either a) they don't know what they are talking about, or b) they are trying to distort things to make Islam look more 'modern' and less anti-women.

Neither is impressive.

Nor is it a small error. It is not only not a mosque, but the people in it aren't Muslims*. Basically, they have got the wrong religion, a bit like doing a documentary about Christianity and filming the 'Christians' in their local synagogue.

Devrim

*Some Alevi consider themselves to be Muslims. However, the vast majority of Muslims don't consider them to be so. They would consider them to be Ghulat.

[Vanguard1917]

The programme asked some important questions -- e.g. concerning the causes of differences between the various Muslim societies historically, the status of women in Muslim societies, the wearing of the veil, Muslim societies' attitudes to science and progress, conflict in the Middle East, etc. -- but it couldn't provide any real answers because its approach was incredibly ahistorical and idealist.

The documentary's suggestion that problems in Muslim societies can be blamed on 'misreadings' of the Quran is clear philistinism - as is, by the same token, the documentary's suggestion that the historically positive aspects of 'Muslim civilisation' can be attributed to this or that verse from the Quran or to this or that teaching of the Prophet Mohammed.

For Marxists, in order to find answers to the questions concerning Muslim societies, and in order to understand why the Quran has been interpreted in different ways by different societies, social groups and in different historical conditions, we have to look beyond controversies about the content of the Quran itself, and look at underlying social, political and economic causes - something which the documentary unfortunately made no attempt to do.

[Rosa Lichtenstein]

Devrim:


One gets the idea that if they make basic factual errors either a) they don't know what they are talking about, or b) they are trying to distort things to make Islam look more 'modern' and less anti-women.

One factual error. But we already know you have a personal interest in making Islam appear worse than it is.

[Rosa Lichtenstein]

VG, I agree with you. But what else can you expect from a non-Marxist channel?

Even so, it challenged several pervasive misconceptions.

[Hyacinth]

Even so, it challenged several pervasive misconceptions.
Just finished watching it, and while I thought it was interesting, what myths did it dispel exactly? Perhaps I’m just not really exposed to the sort of stereotyping that takes place about Muslims and Islam.

[Rosa Lichtenstein]

Well, it listed them as it went along. That Islam is intolerant, that it is anti-woman, that Sharia Law is something to be demonised, as it is in the 'West', etc.

[Devrim]

Well, it listed them as it went along. That Islam is intolerant, that it is anti-woman, that Sharia Law is something to be demonised, as it is in the 'West', etc.

I thought it quite nicely dispelled that one by showing men, and women worshipping together equally. Let's just ignore the fact that they weren't Muslims.

Devrim

[Hyacinth]

What the documentary showed was that Islam (like any religion) isn’t monolithic. There are various different Islamic sects, practices, interpretations, etc. just as there are in Christianity, Judaism, Hinduism, Buddhism, etc. Some are more reactionary than others. Islam is, wrongly, treated as a monolithic entity that is portrayed as barbaric (which it can be, but then again not really any more so than any other religion, nor any more so than capitalism) by some in the West, and it is used as an excuse for racism against Arabs, Moroccans, Africans, and many others from predominantly Muslim countries.

We, as communists, should of course be opposed to racism in any and all forms, but I don’t see how this at all requires a defence of Islam as a religion. I stand opposed to Sharia law inasmuch and in the same way as I stand opposed to Jewish law, or Christian law.

[RHIZOMES]

Well, it listed them as it went along. That Islam is intolerant, that it is anti-woman, that Sharia Law is something to be demonised, as it is in the 'West', etc.

:lol:

...I was formerly a Muslim and I can affirmatively say all those things are true.

I love how these Islam apologists always criticize anti-Islamists for treating the religion like a homogenous entity, while they try to find the most liberal wishy-washy interpretation of the Qu'ran imaginable which is followed mostly by Westernized Muslims, and then claim it's the only "correct" version and all the batshit insane verses were "misinterpreted".

[Faction2008]

We, as communists, should of course be opposed to racism in any and all forms, but I don’t see how this at all requires a defence of Islam as a religion. I stand opposed to Sharia law inasmuch and in the same way as I stand opposed to Jewish law, or Christian law.
I agree. Theology shouldn't be placed within laws.

[Trystan]

The more of the Koran I read, the more sympathetic to the anti-Islamist line I become. On every page there is a reference to the "transgressors" and the fate they receive. I guess it could be interpreted in different ways, and indeed, most Muslims are not fanatics. But Islam in a contemptuous religion in my opinion.

[Faction2008]

The more of the Koran I read, the more sympathetic to the anti-Islamist line I become. On every page there is a reference to the "transgressors" and the fate they receive. I guess it could be interpreted in different ways, and indeed, most Muslims are not fanatics. But Islam in a contemptuous religion in my opinion.
I can understand from quotes in Quran it does come off as a violent faith. However some quotes you need scholars to interpret otherwise you get morons like Abu Hamza. For example:
"O you who believe! do not take the Jews and the Christians for friends; they are friends of each other; and whoever amongst you takes them for a friend, then surely he is one of them; surely Allah does not guide the unjust people."

This quote doesn't refer for today, it refers to back when the Jews and Christians were warring with Muslim when the religion first began. However yes it's quote like this that does make Islam look very violent and some aspects of the religion are immoral, such as stoning for being a homosexual.

[Aurelia]

God I hate it when western 'leftists' defend Islam as the religion of the oppressed third world, it's still as reactionary as all hell.

[Devrim]

Turns out that this documentary offended Muslims too:

Misleading and defamatory: Channel 4 accused over documentary on Qur'an

· Scholars claim programme inflamed sectarian divide
· Broadcaster says film was fair and praised by critics





It was described as an "exemplary piece of programme making" by an award winning film-maker which launched a week of television coverage of Islam.
But a Channel 4 documentary on the Qur'an has angered a group of leading Shia Muslim scholars, who have criticised it for making "seriously inaccurate statements" about their branch of the faith.
In a letter to Channel 4, they said that the depiction of Shia beliefs in The Qur'an, broadcast earlier this month, was "disappointing, misleading, even defamatory".

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/jul/28/islam.channel4

Devrim

[Malakangga]

Moslem here.